Whumptober 2019 - 26 - Abandoned
by DinerGuy
Summary: 2018 reboot. All the others knew was that Magnum was missing, even as they rushed to track him down. All he knew was he'd been dumped in the woods and left for dead, struggling to hold onto reality as the hours passed.


_A/N: __Standard disclaimers apply._

* * *

Magnum could hear the dull roar of a motor from somewhere nearby as he slowly came to. The whole world was rattling and shaking, vibrating at a strange frequency that he couldn't quite place.

He wanted to open his eyes and see what was happening, but his head was pounding, and he just couldn't get his body to obey any commands from his brain. His arms and legs felt leaden when he tried to shift or sit up, and he quickly gave up on the idea of trying to move. And where was he anyway?

The memory came rushing back in a flash. A van… He'd been dragged to a black van, held up by his arms as every muscle in his body felt like it was on fire, and tossed unceremoniously in the back. The pain had exploded through his side and head as he'd landed on the hard floor of the vehicle, and everything had gone dark as he'd vaguely heard someone slam the sliding door closed. That was the last thing he remembered until now.

If he was being honest, he didn't actually remember much else from the past… how long had it been anyway? It was all a blur of questions and pain and light and dark and more pain. Fists and electricity and ropes and more fists… The men who had taken him wanted to know how he'd known where their hideout was and how he'd traced the drugs back to them. His answer that he'd simply stumbled onto it while investigating a completely unrelated case for a client didn't go over so well—even if it was the actual truth.

The rush of memories suddenly dissipated as he felt himself sliding forward as the van suddenly braked. Magnum instinctively tried to catch himself, but his hands still wouldn't cooperate, and he slammed into the side of the vehicle with a weak yell of pain.

He heard a door open and close—the driver, he assumed—and then the sound of the side door sliding open. Hands closed around his arms and yanked him forward, and Magnum barely managed to groan as his shoulders were wrenched at an odd angle. As his wrists moved in tandem, he suddenly remembered he'd been tied up by the guys who'd been questioning him. The fact that he had only just recalled the fact should have worried him more than it did, but he couldn't find the strength to think about it.

The movement only served to exacerbate his headache, and whatever dull pain had been in his side before was now full-blown and rapidly spreading up his spine and reaching its fingers up his neck, combining with the pounding in his head into one massive, throbbing ache.

His vision was spinning, and so he felt rather than saw as he was pulled from the van and his feet hit the hard ground. As much as he tried to get his legs under him to help alleviate the pressure on his joints, he just _couldn't._

There were two sets of hands on his arms, pulling him along, and he felt his feet leave pavement and start to drag over what felt like dirt and grass. He was starting to slip back into unconsciousness, the sounds of the forest around him fading away as the all-consuming pain coursing through him started to win out.

He was jolted back to reality as he felt himself falling, just before he slammed into the ground. His eyes flew open but wouldn't focus on anything, and all of the air fled from his lungs with a gasped groan as he struggled just to breathe past the utter agony. He couldn't even identify what specifically hurt anymore. He squeezed his eyes shut again, but it did nothing to help relieve any of the pain.

Something hard slammed into his side, and he felt a choked cry stick in his throat. It was like he couldn't make a sound, even if he wanted to, and another blow drew the same result. Magnum barely felt himself trying to curl inward, to shield his stomach, but his arms being pinned behind his back made it nearly impossible.

The next impact came before he could fully pull his knees up, and he felt himself retching, which did nothing but make the pain even more intense.

When another blow came, this time to the small of his back, everything went silent for a moment as agony flashed through him.

Fire shot up his right leg, rushing up to join the pain thrumming through him, and it drew him awake just enough for the men's voices to drift past the fog in his brain.

"Think that'll do it?"

"Yeah, he's a goner. C'mon; boss said not to waste time."

"One second."

Magnum panted for breath even as the world around him started to come back into focus a little more clearly. It was still fuzzy, but he could hear the birds and random rustling sounds of wildlife.

Footsteps came then, crunching near his head.

He didn't have a chance to turn toward them or try to open his eyes before something impacted with his temple. The flash of white that exploded past his closed eyes obscured everything else.

* * *

"He's been gone for _two days, _and we still have nothing?" Higgins turned away from the glass that let them see into the interrogation room and ran her hands through her hair.

Rick and T.C. watched her, twin expressions mirroring her own. They were all worried, as they had been since Magnum had missed the game night the four had planned at Robin's Nest. When Higgins' tracking of the Ferrari had led to it being discovered abandoned behind an old warehouse, none of them had felt very good about what could have happened to their friend.

Higgins had easily obtained the security footage from a nearby business, but all it showed was Magnum going into the warehouse the prior afternoon. However he had left, it had been through a door not covered by a camera, meaning they couldn't find him that way. Going the route of who owned the property also came up empty, as a quick search had told them the deed was held by a food transport company that hadn't made use of it in years.

Higgins' research had been done in the car on the way to the warehouse, and they'd searched the place top to bottom, but to no avail. There was no sign of anyone, Magnum or otherwise. In fact, the place was so clean it had undoubtedly been scrubbed very recently.

Rick had made some calls, discovering one of his contacts knew a local drug runner used the place as a waypoint for shipments. The information only served to make all of them more anxious about what had happened to their friend. To the best of their knowledge, Magnum's latest case had nothing to do with drugs—it was about blackmail of some sort for a corporate client—but, then again, they all knew just how easily Magnum got tangled up in things he hadn't initially set out to investigate.

That was when they'd looped in HPD. It was an ungodly hour of the night, but Magnum was in trouble and they weren't about to sit by and wait for the proper time to call someone. It had already been over thirty-six hours hours since the time stamp on the video showed Magnum had walked into the warehouse.

Higgins didn't say anything, but both T.C. and Rick knew she was thinking about what could have been different if she'd only noticed when Magnum didn't come home the night before. But they both felt their own share of guilt; their friend hadn't texted them in the time between his disappearance and when they'd finally realized something was wrong, but none of them had thought anything of it at first.

Katsumoto had been less than pleased with a phone call at two in the morning with the news that Thomas Magnum was missing, but his demeanor had quickly changed to absolutely serious when he'd heard the name Rick's contact had given them. Damien Kanno was already under investigation by the department for his connections with the Japanese mob and their drug trade on Oahu. The news that he possibly had Magnum had everyone immediately on edge.

The detective had promised to keep them all apprised and then headed back to the station to work on the investigation, but none of the three friends left behind to wait for Katsumoto's call wanted to do exactly that.

Higgins did a deep dive into Kanno's property holdings, current and prior, coming up with a handful of commercial deeds as well as five residential properties. When Kumu, looking over her shoulder, had pointed out that the homes in one particular neighborhood had been bought by a developer and no one was currently living there, that had been enough to send Higgins, Rick, and T.C. scrambling to grab their weapons and get to that location.

The house was empty by the time they arrived and was as ominously clean as the warehouse had been. Fresh drops of oil in the driveway told them someone had been there very recently, and they'd called it in to Katsumoto to have forensics check out the house.

No one had been surprised when a black light had turned up blood spatter in the garage, although they were the furthest thing from relieved. There was no doubt in any of their minds that the blood was Magnum's.

Kanno was brought in, but he'd immediately lawyered up, putting them well over the forty-eight hour mark with still no viable clues as to Magnum's location—and the way Kanno just continued to smirk when he was questioned about Magnum told them the man knew exactly what they wanted to know. But they didn't have a way to pull the information out of him.

When Katsumoto exited the interrogation room and joined them, Higgins looked like she wanted to hit something—or someone—and Rick and T.C. didn't look any more relaxed. None of them had slept at all the past day, and they were exhausted on top of their obvious worry for Magnum. Katsumoto knew he didn't look much better; he'd been attacking the case from all angles since they'd called him the night before, and he'd long since lost count of how many cups of coffee he'd had.

"There has to be something we can do." Higgins shook her head as the detective entered the observation room. "We have to have missed something." Her voice was dangerously close to cracking.

The men shared a look, and Rick started to say something before the sound of Katsumoto's phone vibrating interrupted him.

It was like the air had been sucked from the room as everyone fell silent.

"Katsumoto."

They immediately noticed the way his expression changed as he listened to whoever was on the other line, shifting from worried to relieved to concerned to angry all in the span of about thirty seconds.

"Got it. Text me the address. I'm on my way." He tapped the screen to end the call and then looked back up at the others. "Magnum's been found."

* * *

When the sounds broke into his consciousness, he felt panic rising in his chest along with the overwhelming urge to escape. Memories of footsteps and the pain they'd inflicted rushed into his memory. He didn't know why, but all he could think was that… whatever had caused him all of that pain must be back to finish him off. His stomach rolled and his head ached even as the adrenaline coursed through him, and he felt his breath coming faster and faster.

He tried to push away, but he'd barely moved before white-hot pain hit him and sent him tumbling back toward unconsciousness. He fought against it, struggled to stay awake, knowing his only chance of survival was to get away somehow.

"Whoa, whoa, hey! Hey, it's okay!" An unfamiliar voice was in his ear now, but it was gentle and not the coarse laughter of the men who'd dumped him in the woods.

His breathing was still coming fast, and he could hear his heart pounding in his ears. When hands touched his shoulders, he flinched. He tried to bat them away but failed, grunting at the pain that flared through him at the movement.

"Shh, you're okay. You're safe. I'm not gonna hurt you," soothed the same voice… a woman's? The weight of the hands disappeared though. "Just take a breath. That's it."

Another voice, this one male, joined the first. "Help's on the way. How is he?"

"He's waking up, but he seems really scared of something." The woman sounded… worried? Like she was about to cry.

"Wouldn't you be? I mean… someone obviously did this to him." The man sounded angry, and the rough tone struck a chord somewhere in the back of Magnum's memory.

Panic washed over him again, and his breath once again quickened, aggravating his side and sending the pain blossoming into his head even more than before.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," the woman's voice came again, and he felt a cool hand on his forehead.

With a lot of concentration, he managed to squint his eyes open to take in the shape of a shadowy form kneeling next to him. But when he tried to focus on it, his vision started going fuzzy, and he quickly gave up.

"Sir, can you hear me?" her voice continued. "It's okay; you're safe, all right?"

He wanted to respond, but, even though he was trying his best, he could feel his hold on reality slipping away. He reached for anything he could hold onto to keep him grounded, tried to focus on the woman's words, but it was futile.

Whatever was being said faded away as he sank back into unconsciousness.

The next thing he knew, the ground seemed to be moving underneath him. He shifted uncomfortably—and realized he couldn't move at all. Something was across his chest, holding him down. He flinched to struggle against it, but the effort was just too much. He was exhausted, and he'd barely moved.

Somewhere nearby, an unfamiliar voice was speaking, and Magnum heard the crackle of a radio.

"…head trauma, broken ribs… multiple contusions…" The voice faded out again.

He struggled to hear more, but his mind wouldn't stay tuned in to whatever the man was saying.

And then he felt himself being lifted. It was enough to send a wave of dizziness sweeping over him, and he swallowed against the nausea at the quick change in altitude. He barely felt himself moving backward.

"Mr. Magnum? Can you hear me?"

He tried to respond, but the words got stuck somewhere deep in his throat, and his tenuous grip on consciousness failed before he could try again.

* * *

Rick wanted nothing more than to get his hands on Kanno after learning what the man had put Thomas through. He didn't even have to look at the others to know they were thinking the same thing.

The three of them had arrived at the hospital minutes after the helicopter had landed, and their friend had already been rushed into surgery at that point. So, by the time they got to see him, he was cleaned up and lying in a sterile hospital bed. Rick could only imagine what state Thomas had been in when he'd been found.

The police said Magnum had been in the woods for about five hours, based on the time between when traffic camera showed the black van passing out of the area and the hikers had come upon him lying crumpled on the forest floor. If it hadn't been for them happening by… Rick swallowed. He didn't even want to think about it.

Katsumoto wouldn't let any of them see the photos that had been taken for evidence, but he had filled them in on Thomas's condition. With the amount of time they knew he'd been held, they'd all assumed Magnum had been questioned, so the his wrists being bruised and bloodied by ropes didn't surprise them. But, even though they'd been steeling themselves for the report, the rest was still shocking. Kanno had been after information, and he'd tried numerous ways to get it. And not just the brute force of fists either. There were burn marks from electrocution and bruised evidence across Thomas's throat of strangulation being employed.

He had a broken wrist, and at least one of this captors had kicked him while he was down, judging from the marks on his side and lower back. Then there was the heavy bruising on his right leg, and he'd been knocked over the head by something hard—what, the doctors couldn't say, but Rick really didn't need to know the specifics. Just knowing what injuries the dirtbag drug dealers had inflicted on his friend was more than enough.

Rick clenched his fists as he thought of Thomas, alone and at the mercy of Kanno and his gang. If Rick could just have five minutes in a room with the guy…

Two days later, he didn't feel any better about what had happened. Thomas had woken up briefly a few hours after surgery, just long enough for the doctors to be able to assure everyone he was going to be okay. He hadn't spoken much before he'd drifted off again, thanks to his bruised windpipe, but just seeing him even slightly alert had been enough for his friends.

Rick, T.C., and Higgins had hardly left the hospital except to take turns rushing home to shower or take a quick nap. No one wanted to leave him alone, not after having lost him for so long—and, although they didn't say it out loud, after learning how he'd spent so many long hours abandoned in the middle of the forest. It was as if they'd made an unspoken agreement that he wouldn't have to wake up alone.

"Hey." T.C.'s voice broke into Rick's thoughts.

Glancing over to where his friend was sitting beside him, Rick gave a grim smile. "Hey."

"I know what you're thinking."

Sighing, Rick didn't respond, just glanced over at Thomas, lying still and quiet in the bed.

"We got him, okay?" T.C. said, putting a hand on Rick's shoulder. "Kanno's in jail, and they're already rounding up his guys. And you heard the doc; T.M.'s gonna be okay."

Rick raised an eyebrow, but a cough from the bed interrupted whatever he was about to say.

"Tommy!" Rick was on his feet in an instant, T.C. right beside him. "How are you feeling?"

Making a face, the patient lifted a hand in a half-wave. "Y' really… want me… to answer that?"

T.C. chuckled and moved to grab his friend's hand. "Good to have you back with us, brother."

Rick watched Thomas's tired face tilt up into a smile. Some of the swelling had started to go down, although there was still one heck of a shiner around his left eye. The relaxed look on his friend's face, even amidst all of the marks and reminders of what he'd been through, was a relief to Rick and T.C.

When a gasp came from the doorway, followed by Higgins' quiet exclamation of, "Magnum!" both of the other men saw Thomas's grin widen just a little more.

Rick smiled too as he stepped aside to make room for Jules to join them by the bed. Yes, recovery would take time, but they were all there for their friend—and Thomas knew it. They would be with him every step of the way, and he wouldn't have to do any of it alone.

* * *

_Fin._


End file.
